Our Sopnsors

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

This is our last destination of the tour. We arrived there about 4pm. It is an old monastery where you can a lot of antique Buddha statues and of course cats. As you might heard of this monastery where cats are trained to jump through the hoop. According to Tripadvisor' reveiw, there is no cat show anymore because the head monk passed away.

When we arrived, most of the cats were sleeping. It was very dark inside and hard to take photography with available light. Some tourists are waiting for the show but there was no show until I spoke to the monk and donated cash for cat food. I think they should have schedule the show times so that tourists who come here from very far won't miss the show.

There are about 15 cats laying around the monastery. Only 2 cats can jump professionally. I hope that they are fed well even there is no show.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

If u like to shoot beautiful bokeh, it is a very good opportunity to shoot at Orchard road. You can shoot Portrait Bokeh or Still-life with Bokeh. Since, I didn't have a beautiful model, I borrowed Dambo and Japanese Sister toy from my friend for these photos. It was a bit wired to shoot toys on the busy Orchard street but who care? :P

This was my first time to shoot this kind of photo and I am really happy with the result. How do you think?

Friday, December 13, 2013

As usual, Singapore's Orchard Road have been decorated with beautiful Christmas lights. The lighting this year is pretty simple. It uses sparkle of silver and blue only. This year, I don't feel like shooting the street light decoration. I am more keen to shoot beautiful Bokeh and cute Christmas toys.

In this post, I have selected the best photos from my 3 visits to Orchard road. Please enjoy the photos and leave comment below.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

This river is located in front of Inn Den pagoda's entrance. It looks very beautiful and peaceful. On our way to pier, we met these young monks. While I tried to talk to them, they said there is a cave or pagoda near this area and they could guide us. They couldn't speak Burmese very well so I couldn't ask what is the place looks like and how long will it take.

Sunday, December 1, 2013

At the end of the path, you can see these shiny golden stupas. I am not sure whether it is a good idea to build new stupas around the old one. For me, I would to see all new one or all old one separately.

Monday, November 25, 2013

I have seen a lot of photos about Inn Dein uploaded by tourists in photo sharing sites. However, most of the local travelers including myself never heard about this place. May be you do. So I had to make sure with the boat man to send me to Inn Dein during the day tour.

It will take about 30 mins by boat from Phaung Daw U Pagoda. When approaching to Inn Dein, you will notice a lot of bamboo trees. It looks like the scenery from China, Japan or Korea movies.

Thursday, October 10, 2013

I was there during monsoon season so there were not so many visitors and also not many vendors in the market. But the market is still good enough to explore. You can buy souvenirs, jewellery and local food products.

Sunday, October 6, 2013

This is the starting point of Inle Lake tour. If you haven't booked a tour, you can rent a boat here. After that, you can sit back, relax and enjoy the breathtaking scenery around the lake.

We were on our way to the floating market which took about 30 minutes driving distance from where we begun. Unfortunately, the weather was extremely bad. Intermittent rain and dark sky really spoiled the day. So all the photos are quite dark and noisy.

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

My birthday is 29-September. I didn't celebrate my birthday every year in the past, may be just 4 or 5 times in my life. This year my colleagues bought a birthday cake and foods to celebrate my birthday at office. It was fun.

In return, I treated Thai food to my colleagues at Golden Mile complex.

Monday, September 30, 2013

In 2011-Aug-06, I have visited Inle Lake for the first time in my life. During this trip, I have visited Inle Lake, Taungyi, Pindaya cave and Htan San cave. So far, I have only posted about Htan San cave and skipped others places because it was raining most of the time so I couldn't captured a lot of photos and most of them were not great. Despite too much rain during the trip, It is such an amazing place which you shouldn't miss if you visit Myanmar.

I bought Mandalay -> Taungyi ticket (6000 Kyats) from
Shwe Taung Yoe Bus company which departs from Mandalay at 10pm. So my initial
plan was Taungyi->Htan San->Inle->Pindaya. However, my itinerary was
changed after chatting with other passengers on the bus. That guy told me that it is more convenient for me to alight
at Nyaung Shwe and visit Inle & Pindaya first and then on next day take taxi
to go Taungyi. I think it is a very good
advice because it is more easy to buy bus ticket back to Mandalay in Taungyi
rather than buying in Nyaung Shwe.

The bus dropped me at Nyaung Shwe about 4 am. From where I
alighted, I took taxi to go the Nyaung Shwe Town for accommodation. He took me
to “Remember Hotel” which is about 20 minutes walking distance to Inle Lake.
The room rate is very reasonable and the staff (owner) is very helpful. Surprisingly,
they didn't charge me for early check-in at 4 am for that day. Actually, they
could charge me for at least half day.

For our first day tour in Inle Lake, the hotel staff helped us
to hire boat man to explore around the lake from 9:30 am to 3pm. Thus, we had
about 3 hours to sleep. After a short sleep, we left hotel about 8 am and went to Nyaung Shwe market for
breakfast. If you would to try local foods, this morning market is a place you shouldn’t miss.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Htoe Mont & Tea Salad are popular Mandalay snacks. People who visit Mandalay like to buy those for present. You can find these stalls around the town especially near the bus interchanges or rail station.

Samples for customer to try.

This time I was at Tin Tin Aye Htoe Mont stall in front of Mandalay rail station. There are many type of Htoe Mont. You can try all the flavors before you purchase.